What is an ancient civilization known for their phonetic alphabet and indigo dyes?

Question

They also ruled Cyprus at one point.

Answer 1

"The Phoenicians" is the clear answer. BUT some of the answers listed so far are a bit off on their story about the development of the alphabet -- perhaps because they base it on a slightly skewed telling in the wikipedia article.

It is misleading to say that "the Proto-Canannite alphabet" of the early 2nd millennium BC was "refined" of "evolved" into the Phoenician script" of ca. 1000 BC seems to suggest that the development was the work of the group on the northern coast of Syria that we call the Phoenicians.

Not quite. In fact, the Semitic languages of this WHOLE REGION were using forms of the same basic alphabet for centuries, including the "Paleo-Hebrew" script. The ONLY thing that makes the Phoenicians distinctive in this regard, is that they were traders who, as they sailed, shared the alphabet with other cultures around the Mediterranean. The did NOT invent or perfect it.

As for the "Phoenician civilization", we should not overlook their SAILING exploits and the COLONIES they established around the Mediterranean --called "Punic", a clear echo of their origins-- including the mighty power of Carthage (a Semitic name maning "New City", that is "New Tyre"). Thus it was the Phoenicians who ultimately gave us Hannibal (the "Bal" part goes back to "Ba`al", another Semitic word, meaning "master, lord" and referring to their god).

As for the "indigo dyes". It would be better to speak of their "PURPLE" dyes. They were not all indigo; in fact, the most famous, the reddish "Tyrian purple" was not at all. And whereas indigo dyes come from many sources, the dyes from Phoenicia (both purple-red ["Tyrian purple"] and purple-blue [indigo]) were made from the shells of two different species of murex snails.

One other thing -- as others have partly noted, "Phoenician" is a GREEK name that the Greeks gave to the people of this region. They did not, in fact, call themselves that. In fact, these people were the inhabitants of several coastal cities which were proud of their independence.

Eventually, the city of Tyre and its traders came out 'on top'. Thus the greatest traders and those most responsible for the spread of the alphabet and the "Punic" civilization were specifically those from TYRE, not the "Phoenicians" as a whole.

Answer 2

the first phonetic alphabet (discovered in about 1700 BC) is widely belived to be Semitic from the Central Egypt area where it was discovered; it eventually evolved into Phoenician which was the first major phonemic script. Two other widely used writing systems at the time, Cuneiform and Egyptian used hieroglyphs and had no vowels, therefore could not be considered alphabets.

However, the Semitic script contained about two dozen distinct letters, making it a script simple enough for common traders to learn. Another advantage to Phoenician was that it could be used to write down many different languages, since it recorded words phonetically.

The script was spread by the Phoenicians, whose Thalassocracy allowed the script to be spread across the Mediterranean. In Greece, the script was modified to add the vowels, giving rise to the first true alphabet.

The Greeks took letters which did not represent sounds that existed in Greek, and changed them to represent the vowels.

This marks the creation of a "true" alphabet, with the presence of both vowels and consonants as explicit symbols in a single script.

However, INDIGO dye has been used for over 5000 years all over the world made fromthe dried powder of the indigo plant. So these two things are not related in any way.

Answer 3

The second two posters are correct. The Phoenicians are the answer. Their name actually comes from the Greek word for the purple dye their culture developed (phoinikes).

Answer 4

"Phoenician" literally means people of the purple dye (sic). Apparently, extracting the colourant from rotting shellfish was a smelly experience!

Answer 5

The Phoenicians. Look'em up here to find more info:

Answer 6

The Mesopotamians?

Answer 7

The lower slablovians?

The elbow-nians?